[Dixielandjazz] Shaking hands with Fats (was Eubie)

[Bill Haesler]

Dear friends,
Further to the Eubie Blake thread, I wonder how many of you have heard and
requoted the story of Mr Blake, on the occasion of his 100th birthday,
saying "If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better
care of myself."
I also wonder how many people bother to access and read listmate Mike
Meddings wonderful Doctor Jazz - Jelly Roll Morton site.
If not (or even if you do) you may have missed Peter Hanley's fine Eubie
Blake article in which he proves that Eubie, like many young musicians of
his era put his age UP.
Therefore, Eubie who died on 12 Feb 1983 (5 days after his birthday) was
only 96!
To quote Peter:
"Eubie Blake claimed from 1928 that he was born in 1883. In the course of my
research in 2001 and 2002, I discovered that Eubie, like Jelly Roll, had
misrepresented his age and was actually born in 1887. The article,
incorporating the documentary evidence I had found, was published on this
website in January 2003 to a considerable amount of disbelief. Subsequent
documents digitized on the website of the Maryland Historical Society, which
holds all the Blake papers, put the issue beyond any shadow of a doubt."
If you haven't bothered before, why not see what great research has been and
is being done at
  http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/
Kind regards,
Bill.